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Selmat datangdi Maluku
Welcome to Maluku
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Maluku, or the Moluccan Islands, is derived
from the Chinese meaning "clove-
producing islands".
These Islands are the famous Spice Islands which caused the European Age of Discovery.
We’ve all studied the stories of famous explorers of the times: Vasco de Gama rounding the Cape of Good Hope to discover India,Christopher Columbus landing in the New World, and Ferdinand Magellan’s crew becoming the first to circle the globe, all in an attempt to locate these exciting Spice islands.
So why were spices such a big deal in those times??? There were many reasons. Spices were used in magic potions to cure many ailments such as love sickness, baldness and even the plague! Cloves, cengkeh, and nutmeg, pala,were also sought after because of their quality to preserve and flavour food. (After all, in those days there was no such thing as refrigerators.)
Cloves were very valuable, so much so a handful of cloves was equal to a handful of silver!
It is thought that cengkeh is derived from the Chinese tkeng his, meaning fragrant nails. In fact, the Chinese had been using spices hundreds of years before the Europeans.
Clove trees grow near tropical sea shores. They are evergreen and grow to about 13 metres.
Whole cloves which we use in cooking are dried, immature, unopened flower buds.
Nutmeg trees grow best in hot, humid tropical conditions. They also can reach up to 13 metres.
When they are young, they need protection from the sun and wind.
Mace is the dried red petal-like covering which surrounds the nutmeg seed. Powdered nutmeg is made from grinding the seed.
During the Middle Ages Arabs controlled the spice trade to Europe.
Moluccans traded their spices for rice, batik cloth and other daily needs.
The Arabs regulated the spice supply to Europe so they could demand high prices. The Europeans, of course, wanted to put an end to this and did everything they could to find these profitable islands.
Finally, Portuguese explorer Alfonso de Albuquerque captured Malacca, then the main sea port in Southeast Asia, in 1511.
It was here he learned of the route to the Spice Islands.
In 1512, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to locate the Spice Islands.
They built Fort Nassau on Banda Neira Island to protect their trade. But this did not stop the Dutch who under Jan Pieterszoon Coen did everything in their power to obtain and then keep control of the Spice trade. They attacked outposts, made treaties and even exchanged Ran island in Maluku for Manhattan Island in America with the English.
In 1611 Fort Belgica was built by the Dutch to prevent other traders coming to Banda Neira.
Spices sold in Holland for 320 times the purchase price! The Dutch got greedier and greedier and in 1621 Coen captured the Banda Islands completely and very soon had rounded up and murdered nearly all of the 15,000 people there. He forced others to cut down sago palms, their staple food and building supply, so spice trees could grow.
In 1650, the Dutch burned cloves trees on all but one island, Ambon, and carried out a savage tree
cutting program. To gain a monopoly on the trade, they forbade clove growing outside Ambon.
Any self seeded clove trees were destroyed and Hongi expeditions were ordered kell anyone trying to trade in cloves.
By 1681 the Dutch finally achieved a monopoly on the cloves depriving the locals of their trade produce and income. As a result, many Indonesians starved to death while the Dutch enjoyed new found wealth and tastier food!
By the 1800s, the Dutch monopoly ended. Cloves grew in Java, Sumatra, the West Indies and East Africa from smuggled seedlings.
One clove tree miraculously survived in Ternate. It has been named Cengkeh “Afo”. It is about 400 years old, making it the oldest clove tree in the world. It produces over 600 kilograms in one harvest.
Cloves now grow in Sulawesi, Sumatra and Indonesia is still the world’s biggest producer of cloves. Despite this, cloves are also imported for kretek cigarettes. These contain 50% cloves and over a 100 million of them are smoked each day!
The fruit of the nutmeg tree is now used to make jam and syrup and spices are still used in jamu, traditional medicines, tonics and essential oils today.
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